Gesture-based control and usage of video relay systems

ABSTRACT

A system comprising a web-enabled video camera, at least one microphone, a remote server, and a command processing unit, which allow users to communicate remotely with video and audio. The system further is controlled by either gestures from a user, or a remote control, and can have gestures customized by the user for specific inputs. The system contains a menu the user may navigate, and multiple system states which provide different functionality and recognize different gesture commands.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the benefit of, and priority to, U.S.provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/375,243, titled “GESTUREBASED CONTROL AND USAGE OF VIDEO RELAY SYSTEMS” and filed on Aug. 15,2016, the entire specification of which is herein incorporated byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Art

The disclosure relates to the field of video relay systems forhearing-impaired users, and more particularly to the field ofgesture-controlled video relay systems.

Discussion of the State of the Art

It is currently available for deaf individuals to communicate with otherindividuals across distances with computer systems (by which it is meanta computing device which contains a central processing unit, memory, andinterface elements such as a keyboard) that include a remote control,and allow them to input commands and information so that the deafindividual may communicate with other users and even with translators.Currently, the systems in place are cumbersome to their users in thatthe remote may be lost easily, which makes the system unusable. Further,the systems take several steps with a time-consuming interface in orderfor the user to communicate, and typing in letters on a QWERTY keypad ona small device can be painful for some users. Remotes in this field alsoonly possess the capability to execute a certain set of commands, andcannot be programmed for new commands or capabilities by the user, andrequire an independent energy source such as batteries.

In these cases, the user is inconvenienced and encumbered in such a wayas to make communication take more time and energy from the user of thesystem. Communication can be time-sensitive and being required to use asystem which may be disabled due to loss of a remote or lack ofbatteries, or which causes discomfort from small keypads, can hindercommunication.

Therefore, what is clearly needed is a system that does not rely on asmall, easily misplaced remote or keypad, does not require separatebatteries, and does not cause the user physical discomfort or difficultyin using the system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, in apreferred embodiment of the invention, a system and various methods forgesture-based control and usage of video relay systems, which allow adeaf and possibly mute user to communicate to other users across theInternet, with a system possessing several modes of interaction andrequiring no tactile interaction from the user. The followingnon-limiting summary of the invention is provided for clarity, andshould be construed consistently with embodiments described in thedetailed description below.

To address the problem of the remote described above for communicationsystems, American Sign Language (ASL) gesture recognition is provided ina novel system that provides clear program flow for a user to initiatecommunications at a distance with another user. Instead of beingrequired to solely use a remote, the system is capable of recognizinghand gestures as well as ASL-specific commands that the user makes infront of a connected web-enabled camera (colloquially known as a“webcam”), allowing the user to use the software with easily learnedmotions if they do not wish to use the remote control. Common examplesof motions that a user may take advantage of are pointing their thumb totheir left while facing the webcam, which takes them back to a previousmenu option in the system, or being able to define certain gestures thatmay be used to hang up a call. Use of these and more gestures allowsusers to naturally and easily use the system, without the need for asmall, battery-enabled remote, however such a remote is still suppliedwith the system in case users may desire to use the remote anyway.

According to an aspect of the invention, a system for gesture-basedcontrol and usage of video relay systems, comprising: a commandprocessing unit comprising at least a processor, a memory, and aplurality of programming instructions stored in the memory and operatingon the processor, wherein the programmable instructions, when operatingon the processor, cause the processor to: receive a first video streamfrom a connected camera hardware device; analyze at least a portion ofthe first video stream to identify a plurality of hand gestures;correlate at least a portion of the identified hand gestures with aplurality of electronic commands; transmit at least a portion of thefirst video stream via a network; receive a second video stream via anetwork; and direct the navigation of at least a software-based menuinterface, the navigation being based at least in part on at least aportion of the electronic commands, is disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several aspects and, together withthe description, serve to explain the principles of the inventionaccording to the aspects. It will be appreciated by one skilled in theart that the particular arrangements illustrated in the drawings aremerely exemplary, and are not to be considered as limiting of the scopeof the invention or the claims herein in any way.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor gesture recognition and communication, according to an aspect of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment of systemstates for the software, according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for turning onthe system using gesture recognition, according to an aspect of theinvention.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for the mainmenu of the system, according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture for theMain Menu, showing the various items it may have available for the user,according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for the QWERTYMode of the system, according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for the DialMode of the system, according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for theConnection Mode of the system, according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for thePrivacy Mode of the system, according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device used in various aspects of theinvention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logicalarchitecture for a client device, according to an aspect of theinvention.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architecturalarrangement of clients, servers, and external services, according to anaspect of the invention.

FIG. 13 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device used in various aspect of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, in a preferredembodiment of the invention, a system and various methods forgesture-based control and usage of video relay systems.

One or more different aspects may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the aspects described herein,numerous alternative arrangements may be described; it should beappreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only andare not limiting of the aspects contained herein or the claims presentedherein in any way. One or more of the arrangements may be widelyapplicable to numerous aspects, as may be readily apparent from thedisclosure. In general, arrangements are described in sufficient detailto enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of theaspects, and it should be appreciated that other arrangements may beutilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and otherchanges may be made without departing from the scope of the particularaspects. Particular features of one or more of the aspects describedherein may be described with reference to one or more particular aspectsor figures that form a part of the present disclosure, and in which areshown, by way of illustration, specific arrangements of one or more ofthe aspects. It should be appreciated, however, that such features arenot limited to usage in the one or more particular aspects or figureswith reference to which they are described. The present disclosure isneither a literal description of all arrangements of one or more of theaspects nor a listing of features of one or more of the aspects thatmust be present in all arrangements.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or morecommunication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an aspect with several components in communication witheach other does not imply that all such components are required. To thecontrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible aspects and in order to more fullyillustrate one or more aspects. Similarly, although process steps,method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequentialorder, such processes, methods and algorithms may generally beconfigured to work in alternate orders, unless specifically stated tothe contrary. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may bedescribed in this patent application does not, in and of itself,indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. Thesteps of described processes may be performed in any order practical.Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite beingdescribed or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because onestep is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of aprocess by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that theillustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modificationsthereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its stepsare necessary to one or more of the aspects, and does not imply that theillustrated process is preferred. Also, steps are generally describedonce per aspect, but this does not mean they must occur once, or thatthey may only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm iscarried out or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some aspects orsome occurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in agiven aspect or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a singledevice or article may be used in place of the more than one device orarticle.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other aspects need notinclude the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should beappreciated that particular aspects may include multiple iterations of atechnique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless notedotherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should beunderstood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code whichinclude one or more executable instructions for implementing specificlogical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations areincluded within the scope of various aspects in which, for example,functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed,including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending onthe functionality involved, as would be understood by those havingordinary skill in the art.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system 100interacting with a user 110 to capture hand gestures for long-rangecommunication, according to an aspect of the invention. According to theaspect, a web-enabled camera 120 may capture video of a user 110, andimages captured from the webcam may be sent to command processing unit130 that may be configured to transmit video and audio to another remoteuser 150. According to the aspect, a computing device 100 typicallycomprises at least a memory 11 and a processor 12 (as described below,referring to FIG. 10), configured to operate a software operating system(OS), for example including (but not limited to) ANDROID™, APPLE IOS™,WINDOWS™, or various forms of LINUX™.

Command processing unit 130 may then recognize gestures from the imagesprovided by the webcam 120, recognizing commands from a user, usingimage recognition. Various implementations of image recognition softwaremay be used according to various use cases or arrangements. Thesegestures can provide, according to a preferred aspect of the invention,different functionality depending on the state of the system, as shownbelow. When the system is in Connection Mode 240 as in FIG. 2, which canbe activated according to methods described in aspects detailed below,the images captured by the webcam 120 of a user 110 may be sent to aremote server 140. This remote server can run various kinds of SessionInitiation Protocol (SIP) software operating with call routing rulesaccording to various arrangements, as is common in the art. A user maythen, through such a server, communicate visually and audibly withanother remote user 110, and every user involved in a communication willsee each other's captured video displayed through video output 160, suchas a TV through an HDMI connection, an embedded laptop monitor, or othervideo output devices in use today and the future with computing devicesthat may run the system described herein.

Detailed Description of Exemplary Aspects

The system may begin in a listening state 220 as shown in FIG. 2 and,according to an aspect shown in FIG. 3, an implementation of the systemmay await a repetition of gestures 310 that may be defined or configuredby a user. Such gestures may be determined upon installation of thesoftware as in an initial configuration as is common with some types ofsoftware, or may be configured in a main menu, as a configurationapplication 561 as in FIG. 5, as one of several applications capable ofbeing run by the system. When a user produces these gestures 310 with ashort delay between each repetition 320, the system initializes andturns on all other components 330 as shown in FIG. 3. When initialized,the system enters 340 a main menu 210 as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 2.According to an aspect, the system may use at least one web-enabledcamera 120 to detect these gestures as shown in FIG. 1. Upon enteringmain menu 210, a user is given a list of menu items to choose fromaccording to an aspect in FIG. 5. Users may use many different gestureswhen on the Main Menu 210, listed on FIG. 4, to either producefunctionality on their own, or to navigate the menu items available tousers. According to an aspect of the invention, a user may producegestures 410 which may be repeated 420, defined either in aconfiguration utility on installing the system as is common with manysoftware applications and systems, or with a configuration utility whichmay be available as an application 561 as shown in FIG. 5. According toa preferred aspect of the invention, the system may enter QWERTY Mode230, 421 if the delay between these gestures is decidedly short, or itmay enter dial mode 422, as shown in FIG. 4.

Alternatively, according to an aspect, a user may make a thumb gesture430 or substitute a different ASL sign depending on systemconfiguration, and this will cause the menu cursor to move in thespecified direction by the hand sign 431 according to a preferred aspectas shown in FIG. 4. A user may also, according to an aspect of theinvention described in FIG. 4, point forward to the screen with theirfinger 440, and the generated action would select the highlighted menuitem 441 and execute the selected item (for example, if an applicationwere highlighted, the application would start running on the computersystem). A user may also, according to an aspect of the inventiondescribed in FIG. 4, point their thumb straight out to the left 450, andthe generated action would be to go back to the previous item in themenu 451, and this motion has further functionality in further systemstates as well, according to preferred aspects, in that it may returnthe user to a previous screen 451.

Further according to the aspect, a user may, as described in FIG. 4,point their thumb to themselves or away from themselves 460, and thegenerated action would be to adjust the focus of the web camera 461,either closer or farther away based on the direction of the thumb. Auser may also, according to an aspect of the invention described in FIG.4, produce a gesture configured in the system 470, either during systeminstallation, or by running a configuration utility 561, and the gesturecan perform three different functions 471. If a user is being called byanother user, the gesture will answer the call 471. If a user iscurrently speaking to another user, it will hang up the call 471.Lastly, if neither a call is taking place nor a user is being called,the gesture may allow a user to place a call instead, directly from mainmenu 471.

According to an aspect of the invention, a main menu 210 may haveseveral different items listed for a user to choose from. As shown inFIG. 5, a user may choose from contacts 520, in which the eventgenerated will list on the screen all the contacts 521 that are saved bythe user. Further, the same user may then add another contact 522,according to a preferred aspect of the invention. A user could also,according to a preferred aspect of the invention specified in FIG. 5,choose history 530, from the main menu, which will allow a user to viewtheir call connection history 531, listing both incoming and outboundcalls made. A user could also, according to a preferred aspect of theinvention specified in FIG. 5, choose mail 540, which will initiate amail interface 541 for users. A user could also, according to apreferred aspect of the invention specified in FIG. 5, choose a searchoption 550, which, if executed, can search a user's contacts, or theirmail, or search online 551 such as via a service such as YELP™. Lastly,a user may also, according to an aspect of the invention described inFIG. 5, choose apps 560, which will bring up many different applicationsthat a user may choose from 561, which may include such things as aconfiguration utility or other applications as decided by the vendor.

According to further aspects of the invention, when a user may enterQWERTY Mode 610 from the main menu 421, a user may then produce twogestures for additional functionality. A user may, according to apreferred aspect of the invention as specified in FIG. 6, produce ASLgestures 630, 631, to produce commands to the system 632 without the useof a remote. A user may further motion to the left with their thumb 620,and, as mentioned earlier in the disclosure, this will return a user tothe main menu 621.

According to further aspects of the invention, when a user may enterdial mode 710 from main menu 422, a user may then produce two gesturesfor additional functionality. A user may, according to a preferredaspect of the invention as specified in FIG. 7, produce ASL numericgestures 730, 731, to dial numbers and call others 732 without the useof a remote or number pad. A user may further motion to the left withtheir thumb 720, and, as mentioned earlier in the disclosure, this willreturn a user to main menu 721.

According to further aspects of the invention, when a user may enter aconnection mode 240 from main menu 470, 732, as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG.7 when a user desire to place a call or dials a number to call, they mayfurther use two gestures to produce further functionality 810 as shownin FIG. 8. If a user snaps their fingers 830, the user may enter aprivacy mode 831, as illustrated in FIG. 2 in the state diagram of thesystem, 250. If, instead, a user executes a repeated configured gesture820, with a short delay between the repetitions 821, any call the useris currently in hangs up and the user returns to the initial listeningmode 822.

Further aspects of the invention illustrated in FIG. 9 show privacy mode250. In privacy mode a user may snap their fingers 830 only once 910, toturn video on and off 911, thereby preserving privacy. Further, a usermay snap their fingers twice 921 with a small delay between each snap920, to mute and unmute their audio 922. Privacy mode is an extension ofconnection mode, and hanging up a call is the same as in connection modeas shown in FIG. 8, 820, 821, 822.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Referring now to FIG. 10, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 10 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 10 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 10 may be configuredto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one embodiment, computing device 10 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 12, one or more interfaces 15, and one or morebusses 14 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 12 maybe responsible for implementing specific functions associated with thefunctions of a specifically configured computing device or machine. Forexample, in at least one embodiment, a computing device 10 may beconfigured or designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 12,local memory 11 and/or remote memory 16, and interface(s) 15. In atleast one embodiment, CPU 12 may be caused to perform one or more of thedifferent types of functions and/or operations under the control ofsoftware modules or components, which for example, may include anoperating system and any appropriate applications software, drivers, andthe like.

CPU 12 may include one or more processors 13 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some embodiments, processors 13 may includespecially designed hardware such as application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 10. In a specific embodiment,a local memory 11 (such as non-volatile random access memory (RAM)and/or read-only memory (ROM), including for example one or more levelsof cached memory) may also form part of CPU 12. However, there are manydifferent ways in which memory may be coupled to system 10. Memory 11may be used for a variety of purposes such as, for example, cachingand/or storing data, programming instructions, and the like. It shouldbe further appreciated that CPU 12 may be one of a variety ofsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) type hardware that may include additionalhardware such as memory or graphics processing chips, such as a QUALCOMMSNAPDRAGON™ or SAMSUNG EXYNOS™ CPU as are becoming increasingly commonin the art, such as for use in mobile devices or integrated devices.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one embodiment, interfaces 15 are provided as network interface cards(NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 15 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 10. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, THUNDERBOLT™, PCI, parallel, radiofrequency (RF), BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., usingnear-field magnetics), 802.11 (Wi-Fi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fastEthernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, Serial ATA (SATA) orexternal SATA (ESATA) interfaces, high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI), digital visual interface (DVI), analog or digital audiointerfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces, high-speedserial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale (POS) interfaces,fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), and the like. Generally, suchinterfaces 15 may include physical ports appropriate for communicationwith appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include anindependent processor (such as a dedicated audio or video processor, asis common in the art for high-fidelity AN hardware interfaces) and, insome instances, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 10 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 10 for implementing one or more ofthe inventions described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 13 may be used, and such processors 13may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one embodiment, a single processor 13 handles communicationsas well as routing computations, while in other embodiments a separatededicated communications processor may be provided. In variousembodiments, different types of features or functionalities may beimplemented in a system according to the invention that includes aclient device (such as a tablet device or smartphone running clientsoftware) and server systems (such as a server system described in moredetail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of the presentinvention may employ one or more memories or memory modules (such as,for example, remote memory block 16 and local memory 11) configured tostore data, program instructions for the general-purpose networkoperations, or other information relating to the functionality of theembodiments described herein (or any combinations of the above). Programinstructions may control execution of or comprise an operating systemand/or one or more applications, for example. Memory 16 or memories 11,16 may also be configured to store data structures, configuration data,encryption data, historical system operations information, or any otherspecific or generic non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device embodiments may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory (as is common in mobile devices andintegrated systems), solid state drives (SSD) and “hybrid SSD” storagedrives that may combine physical components of solid state and hard diskdrives in a single hardware device (as are becoming increasingly commonin the art with regard to personal computers), memristor memory, randomaccess memory (RAM), and the like. It should be appreciated that suchstorage means may be integral and non-removable (such as RAM hardwaremodules that may be soldered onto a motherboard or otherwise integratedinto an electronic device), or they may be removable such as swappableflash memory modules (such as “thumb drives” or other removable mediadesigned for rapidly exchanging physical storage devices),“hot-swappable” hard disk drives or solid state drives, removableoptical storage discs, or other such removable media, and that suchintegral and removable storage media may be utilized interchangeably.Examples of program instructions include both object code, such as maybe produced by a compiler, machine code, such as may be produced by anassembler or a linker, byte code, such as may be generated by forexample a JAVA™ compiler and may be executed using a Java virtualmachine or equivalent, or files containing higher level code that may beexecuted by the computer using an interpreter (for example, scriptswritten in Python, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some embodiments, systems according to the present invention may beimplemented on a standalone computing system. Referring now to FIG. 11,there is shown a block diagram depicting a typical exemplaryarchitecture of one or more embodiments or components thereof on astandalone computing system. Computing device 20 includes processors 21that may run software that carry out one or more functions orapplications of embodiments of the invention, such as for example aclient application 24. Processors 21 may carry out computinginstructions under control of an operating system 22 such as, forexample, a version of MICROSOFT WINDOWS™ operating system, APPLE OSX™ oriOS™ operating systems, some variety of the Linux operating system,ANDROID™ operating system, or the like. In many cases, one or moreshared services 23 may be operable in system 20, and may be useful forproviding common services to client applications 24. Services 23 may forexample be WINDOWS™ services, user-space common services in a Linuxenvironment, or any other type of common service architecture used withoperating system 21. Input devices 28 may be of any type suitable forreceiving user input, including for example a keyboard, touchscreen,microphone (for example, for voice input), mouse, touchpad, trackball,or any combination thereof. Output devices 27 may be of any typesuitable for providing output to one or more users, whether remote orlocal to system 20, and may include for example one or more screens forvisual output, speakers, printers, or any combination thereof. Memory 25may be random-access memory having any structure and architecture knownin the art, for use by processors 21, for example to run software.Storage devices 26 may be any magnetic, optical, mechanical, memristor,or electrical storage device for storage of data in digital form (suchas those described above, referring to FIG. 10). Examples of storagedevices 26 include flash memory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or thelike.

In some embodiments, systems of the present invention may be implementedon a distributed computing network, such as one having any number ofclients and/or servers. Referring now to FIG. 12, there is shown a blockdiagram depicting an exemplary architecture 30 for implementing at leasta portion of a system according to an embodiment of the invention on adistributed computing network. According to the embodiment, any numberof clients 33 may be provided. Each client 33 may run software forimplementing client-side portions of the present invention; clients maycomprise a system 20 such as that illustrated in FIG. 11. In addition,any number of servers 32 may be provided for handling requests receivedfrom one or more clients 33. Clients 33 and servers 32 may communicatewith one another via one or more electronic networks 31, which may be invarious embodiments any of the Internet, a wide area network, a mobiletelephony network (such as CDMA or GSM cellular networks), a wirelessnetwork (such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX, LTE, and so forth), or a local areanetwork (or indeed any network topology known in the art; the inventiondoes not prefer any one network topology over any other). Networks 31may be implemented using any known network protocols, including forexample wired and/or wireless protocols.

In addition, in some embodiments, servers 32 may call external services37 when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer toadditional data concerning a particular call. Communications withexternal services 37 may take place, for example, via one or morenetworks 31. In various embodiments, external services 37 may compriseweb-enabled services or functionality related to or installed on thehardware device itself. For example, in an embodiment where clientapplications 24 are implemented on a smartphone or other electronicdevice, client applications 24 may obtain information stored in a serversystem 32 in the cloud or on an external service 37 deployed on one ormore of a particular enterprise's or user's premises.

In some embodiments of the invention, clients 33 or servers 32 (or both)may make use of one or more specialized services or appliances that maybe deployed locally or remotely across one or more networks 31. Forexample, one or more databases 34 may be used or referred to by one ormore embodiments of the invention. It should be understood by one havingordinary skill in the art that databases 34 may be arranged in a widevariety of architectures and using a wide variety of data access andmanipulation means. For example, in various embodiments one or moredatabases 34 may comprise a relational database system using astructured query language (SQL), while others may comprise analternative data storage technology such as those referred to in the artas “NoSQL” (for example, HADOOP CASSANDRA™, GOOGLE BIGTABLE™, and soforth). In some embodiments, variant database architectures such ascolumn-oriented databases, in-memory databases, clustered databases,distributed databases, or even flat file data repositories may be usedaccording to the invention. It will be appreciated by one havingordinary skill in the art that any combination of known or futuredatabase technologies may be used as appropriate, unless a specificdatabase technology or a specific arrangement of components is specifiedfor a particular embodiment herein. Moreover, it should be appreciatedthat the term “database” as used herein may refer to a physical databasemachine, a cluster of machines acting as a single database system, or alogical database within an overall database management system. Unless aspecific meaning is specified for a given use of the term “database”, itshould be construed to mean any of these senses of the word, all ofwhich are understood as a plain meaning of the term “database” by thosehaving ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, most embodiments of the invention may make use of one or moresecurity systems 36 and configuration systems 35. Security andconfiguration management are common information technology (IT) and webfunctions, and some amount of each are generally associated with any ITor web systems. It should be understood by one having ordinary skill inthe art that any configuration or security subsystems known in the artnow or in the future may be used in conjunction with embodiments of theinvention without limitation, unless a specific security 36 orconfiguration system 35 or approach is specifically required by thedescription of any specific embodiment.

FIG. 13 shows an exemplary overview of a computer system 40 as may beused in any of the various locations throughout the system. It isexemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Variousmodifications and changes may be made to computer system 40 withoutdeparting from the broader scope of the system and method disclosedherein. Central processor unit (CPU) 41 is connected to bus 42, to whichbus is also connected memory 43, nonvolatile memory 44, display 47,input/output (I/O) unit 48, and network interface card (NIC) 53. I/Ounit 48 may, typically, be connected to keyboard 49, pointing device 50,hard disk 52, and real-time clock 51. NIC 53 connects to network 54,which may be the Internet or a local network, which local network may ormay not have connections to the Internet. Also shown as part of system40 is power supply unit 45 connected, in this example, to a mainalternating current (AC) supply 46. Not shown are batteries that couldbe present, and many other devices and modifications that are well knownbut are not applicable to the specific novel functions of the currentsystem and method disclosed herein. It should be appreciated that someor all components illustrated may be combined, such as in variousintegrated applications, for example Qualcomm or Samsungsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) devices, or whenever it may be appropriate tocombine multiple capabilities or functions into a single hardware device(for instance, in mobile devices such as smartphones, video gameconsoles, in-vehicle computer systems such as navigation or multimediasystems in automobiles, or other integrated hardware devices).

In various embodiments, functionality for implementing systems ormethods of the present invention may be distributed among any number ofclient and/or server components. For example, various software modulesmay be implemented for performing various functions in connection withthe present invention, and such modules may be variously implemented torun on server and/or client components.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various embodiments described above. Accordingly, the presentinvention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for gesture-based control and usage ofvideo relay systems, comprising: a command processing unit comprising atleast a processor, a memory, and a plurality of programming instructionsstored in the memory and operating on the processor, wherein theprogrammable instructions, when operating on the processor, cause theprocessor to: receive a first video stream from a connected camerahardware device; analyze at least a portion of the first video stream toidentify a plurality of hand gestures; correlate at least a portion ofthe identified hand gestures with a plurality of electronic commands;transmit at least a portion of the first video stream via a network;receive a second video stream via a network; and direct the navigationof at least a software-based menu interface, the navigation being basedat least in part on at least a portion of the electronic commands. 2.The system of claim 1, wherein the command processing unit is furtherconfigured to navigate multiple system states based at least in part onat least a portion of the electronic commands.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein the command processing unit is further configured to direct theoperation of a phone dialer based at least in part on at least a portionof the electronic commands.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein theelectronic commands may be configured by a user and stored for futureuse.
 5. A method for gesture based control and usage of video relaysystems, comprising the steps of: (a) receiving, at a command processingunit, a first video stream captured from a camera hardware device; (b)analyzing at least a portion of the first video stream to identify aplurality of hand gestures; (c) processing at least a portion of thehand gestures to produce a plurality of electronic commands; (d)transmitting at least a portion of the first video stream via a network;(e) directing the navigation of a software-based menu interface, thenavigation being based at least in part on at least a portion of theelectronic commands;
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising thestep of navigating multiple system states based at least in part on atleast a portion of the electronic commands.
 7. The method of claim 5,wherein the command processing unit is further configured to direct theoperation of a phone dialer based at least in part on at least a portionof the electronic commands.
 8. The method of claim 5, wherein theelectronic commands may be configured by a user and stored for futureuse.